Spare the God, Spoil the Child? Similarities in Atheists’ and Non-Atheists’ Rankings of Childhood Values

Abstract

Religion plays a predictive role in which values adults will prioritize in childrearing. However, little research addresses how atheists may emphasize different parenting values from religious individuals, particularly within an American context. We accessed data from the 2021 General Social Survey (N = 1,501) to explore if Atheists differed from Agnostics, Nothing-in-Particulars, slightly religious Protestants, moderately religious Protestants, very religious Protestants, slightly religious Catholics, and moderately religious Catholics, concerning their value rankings of obedience, popularity, independent thinking, helping others, and popularity, for children. Consistent with our hypotheses, Atheists ranked obedience as less important and independent thinking as more important than either Protestants (particularly very religious Protestants) or Catholics. However, there was a large degree of agreement across what respondents valued regardless of whether they were nonreligious or religious. All groups ranked intellectual autonomy, helping others, and working hard as more important than either obedience or popularity. The conclusion that secular groups have radically different values than religious groups is unwarranted.

Keywords

• atheism
• christianity
• moral development
• parenting